THE SPIRIT WHO INTERCEEDS
Romans 8: 26-27 (p800) February 17, 2013
INTRODUCTION:
Anyone here ever have to depend on someone else for something? I know that’s almost a rhetorical question, because all of us have!
But think about a time where you were sick…or injured…or had just gone through surgery… (I’ve got a bunch of those memories in my internal filing systems)
The time I remember being physically the weakest was before my back fusion surgery…I’d taken epidural shots for 3 years, they’d helped for a while, and then they stopped helping…I spent a week in the Old Methodist Hospital having spasms and intense pain…the only option I had back then was surgery…but I couldn’t walk, couldn’t sit, couldn’t stand…if I wanted to get somewhere I tried to crawl…
If I wanted to let someone had to fix it or get it for me… If I wanted coffee the same thing, if I needed a book, across the room I needed help to retrieve it…It was the one time in my stubborn, self sufficient life that I could not do what I wanted to do without someone helping me…
I think of what time in my life when I consider our text today and the disruption the Apostle Paul gives of the Holy spirit…it even starts out…
“In the same way, the Holy spirit helps us in our weakness.”
Last week we talked about suffering ...and what it has to do with our glorious inheritance…this world is decaying…it sinful…our bodies are temporary like “jars of clay”…Because those things are true, life will bring its share of troubles, scars, and trials….Jesus clothed himself with the same temporary flesh, so he truly understands…
And there is also suffering because you are a servant of Christ…your step into the world, you lift up the middle rope and enter the ring as a spirit-led child God, by intentionally doing this…it’s not if you get hit…its when…
This truth…it’s the inescapable reality….it’s what causes the born again Spirit filled follower of Jesus to hope for a future glory…Those of us who seek to live Christ-directed lives long for a face to face meeting….”we wait eagerly for our adoption as Sons…the redemption of our bodies for in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has. But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently. (v 24, 25)
And just as I depended on Kari to be my helper during the weakest times in my life….Paul says…in the same way!
I THE HOLY SPIRIT HELPS US IN OUR WEAKNESS
There are several words that jump out in that sentence…but the two that hit me are…”VS” and “OUR”
The Apostle Paul creates a “team”, if you will in this sentence…On the back of our uniforms’ names it’s… “Heirs”…it’s also on the back of Paul’s uniform…in fact its written on the back of every individual who has answered the call of God to be born again, to die to self, to be resurrected by the Spirit of life…He signs the contract…it’s official…Jesus is our coach, but Paul, Rick, Jeff, Josh…you face this opponent together…It’s not “I” it’s not “me” it’s not “Mine”…its “US” It’s “OUR”
You remember verses 16? 17? “The spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children…Now if we are children then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…
And then that suffering thing came up…Even creation itself groaning like a woman in the pains of childbirth…hoping…waiting…for redemption…weakness…It reminds us of our inability….its humbling because it lets us know you can’t do it all…you need someone else….
[I knew this kid who had feet and legs so crooked he had to wear special shoes attached to braces as he learned to walk…He was cross-eyed and had special glasses to help correct the astigmatism. He constantly had his family to the emergency room….He ate paint one time, got hit in the lead with a shovel in boy scouts…smacked his head on the side of the pool while diving…not once, but twice, he put the handbrake level through his side while riding a mini bike almost 100 stitches, missed his lung by less than a inch…He was burned over 50% with 3rd degree burns…He broke his hip when he was 18….both knees have been surgically repaired…he had a heart attack when he was 34. After years of Epidurals to relieve the back spasms and pain that left him almost an invalid, he had his spine fused…at 42 last year after they discovered he needed another knee surgery….the discovered that all of the major arteries in his heart were so blocked they were almost severed they put in 3 stints. He has a coronary pinched nerve in his hip and continual sciatic nerve issues from his spine…
Folks, there are lots of things I do not know, but I know about weakness….at least when this mortal body is concerned.]
No one likes to suffer, no one likes to be weak but it’s only then that we discover that we need help. Weakness is the area in which God shows His children how strong He is…and how much they should hope for something better. I always remember who I was when God invaded my life. I was a pot-head, I’d dropped out of school, I had no real purpose in life other than the next party or the next high…I thought of me, I sat on a crumbling, rebellious, selfish throne…
And then God came after me, He sent messengers into my life with a story of hope. He broke my heart, He convicted me of my sin, He showed me the Savior…His power to save was awesome and mighty….He loved me…He wanted me…Why? I don’t have an answer other than this....It’s the theme scripture for my testimony…. (The fire that burn’s away the clutter.)
1 Corinthians 1: (18) 25-31 (p807)
You see he discovered in faith that…
II I DON’T ALWAYS KNOW WHAT BEST FOR ME. (OR YOU)
“We don’t know what we ought to pray for…”
I can tell you what most of us pray for in a time of trouble, weakness and suffering…
“GOD!!! GET ME OUT OF THIS NOW!”
There are lots of people who have no spirit, adoption, Heir relationship with God who treat Him like a Safety Net…O.K. God I’ve really messed this up…now make the consequences go away!
First of all let me state that scripturally there is no promise that God reacts to your prayer at all…There is no family bond and there is no promise of his blessing or His care.
When the Spirit intercedes…it’s from within the temple/ our bodies)….When He groans with a power beyond words it’s from within…
And as God searches our hearts…He knows how His Spirit thinks…its His Spirit!!! Remember the Spirit himself testifies with our Spirit…God’s Spirit interprets our wants, needs, desires, hurts, inabilities, weakness through the filter of God’s Will.
My nature is sinful it’s selfish…it’s prayer will always be “Get Me Out of This” Make things more comfortable for me…carnal Christians pray this way…worldly people only invite God into the circle for brief periods of severe turmoil…then immediately remove Him from the circle.
Our desire is always for healing, health; ease and money…Our prayers often reflect that view of power…especially if we are of the world, or carnal Christians who operate like the world. We all cry out for rescue and healing.
Do you remember this? Paul writes to the Corinthians, in his second letter he recalls a time when he had a revelation of Heaven, He heard heavenly things that he was not permitted to tell…That was a powerful experience for Paul the apostle…but he writes…
2 Cor 12: 7-10 (p822)
Is there any other way to interpret what Paul is saying than…”Spiritually I’m at my best…I’m closer to God…I’m more dependent on him---when I’m hurting, persecuted, under pressure and going through difficultness?” That kinda puts a kink in that Health and Wealth gospel thing doesn’t it?
Paul puts it pretty well huh? We’re not God…He is a lot wiser than us….”We do not know what we ought to pray for…”
So why pray? Well if your lost…if you’re in the midst of conviction…the place where God’s Spirit is drawing you into a relationship then prayer is essential…it’s the first surrender in the process of salvation….with whatever words you want…it’s “I surrender…I’m guilty…I need a Savior…I want to be your child…I want to follow Jesus” It’s not all there is but …conviction leads to confession…repentance is the real sorrow for sin, our sin that turns us around toward God. Baptism is visible union with Jesus. Death, burial and resurrection…through the gift of the Holy spirit…and if there has been a true rebirth…Our life afterwards bears fruit…in our attitude or in our actions…we begin to grow up into mature spirit-filled and led followers.
There have been one of two times in my life where I have hurt inwardly so badly I could not understand what was happening or a way out where God world be glorified…groaning is a perfect description of what my soul did.
So why did and do I pray? As a Christian…why do I pray when there is such a thing as God’s Will?
I’ve genuinely had people say to me…”If it’s god’s Will there is really no need to pray about it…God’s not going to change His Will.” It’s kind of a Que Sera Sera whatever will be approach to our relationship with God…it doesn’t create the closeness of a father and Son or daughter sharing their hearts intimately…It views God as removed but in control…nothing like Jesus” (God’s only Son) relationship through prayer with His father while here on earth…
God’s perfect, He is all knowing. All encompassing and all powerful…
Satan goal is to create distance between human being and God, for those that are eternally separated with Him in Hell…but also for carnal (worldly) Christians who set on their own throne, making their own decisions with worldly wisdom ( sometime very successfully) but keeping Christ at their feet.
No need to communicate intimately…I’ve got this! If that’s true why (and I’m looking ahead a touch) does Romans 8:34 say “who is he that condemns? (Satan condemn, His very name means “Accuser”.)…verse 31 asks “If God is with us…who can be against us? “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” (v33)
God’s goal, His all encompassing purpose of heart isn’t to condemn us to Hell…it’s to save Us. He gave Jesus his only son for that purpose “Christ Jesus, who died….more than that, who was raised to life---is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us! (v34)
“Jesus is the one who searches our hearts…He knows the mind of the Spirit…because the Spirit intercedes for the Saints in accordance with God’s Will” (Romans 8: 27)…
You see the goal of the born-again Spirit filled and spirit led child of God, the one who is a co-heir with Christ in a future inheritance …is to become like Christ Jesus…that’s God’s plan for us as well…that’s why the Holy Spirit works from the inside out…Jesus wasn’t much to look at outwardly…but inwardly He was grace and truth…He was and is God in the Flesh…God with us…He left His Holy spirit (Holy is His work, not His first name)
That’s why in our weakness...He groans…for answers that go beyond words...there is a connection between our intercessor in Heaven at God’s right hand….and our eternal Spirit in our Hearts…Why would we need intercession if God cannot be moved to answer, to protect, to work, and to change…us and circumstances, for our good and His glory?
Paul writes to Timothy, the Pastor, leader at the church in Ephesus …and says…”There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5)
This statement is right after he tells Timothy…Pray! I urge you that through requests, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for everyone…
Intercession…meditation…it’s someone who puts themselves in the middle of two people who are separated…and works to reconcile…Jesus is the only mediator between us and the Father…not Mary, not the Pope, not select clergy…Jesus alone works for the reconciliation continually for his people…A people who have his Spirit molding, working, comforting, teaching, counseling, interceding…especially in our weakness.
What do we then do…? We plead for others…Kings, Those in Authority…My neighbor across the street, our enemies, our Red Dot….Why, because if God is not breaking the person’s heart we’re pleading for…no conviction or realization of sin can occur….
[The Redest chapters in the New Testament….John 14, 15, 16 and 17….The longest recorded continuous conversation of Jesus before His death, burial, and resurrection and a huge portion of it refers to the Holy Spirit, John 14:15-20, John 14: 25,26, John 15, 26-16:1, John 16: 7-15, John 17:11]
